Bands of Mourning: So that's why it's still called Mistborn

[Pronounceable]

It's out! And, being the terrible fanboy, I already finished it. Not posting any spoilers but...

I'd kinda forgotten how hard Sanderson can twist. Which is strange, considering what happened with the previous book just a few months ago, but I suspect it's cos there's a big difference between characterization suckerpunching and plot suckerpunching.

[~Corvus~]

A;ready???? I just got the thing on Kindle today... =c

[Pronounceable]

^ Fastest draw in the west...

So instead of edit:
What the ****, man!? (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B0NS93U/ref=r_soa_w_d)

[Seerow]

^ Fastest draw in the west...

So instead of edit:
What the ****, man!? (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B0NS93U/ref=r_soa_w_d)

Seriously. Amazon is making us wait a whole extra 3 days? I hate all of these different specific ereader formats. >_>

[Douglas]

Thanks for reminding me about this being released today yesterday.

I'm stopping at the end of part 2 for the night, and I've just got to say, Steris is such a great character. She gets thrust into this utterly insane lifestyle, with all the trouble Wax keeps getting into, and proceeds to take it all in stride and turn it into an excuse for becoming Crazy Prepared - and quite effectively so. And the banter!:smallamused: Some of these conversations are quite strongly reminiscent of D&D gaming sessions, complete with the utterly gobsmacked reactions of bystander NPCs.:smallamused:

[Seerow]

Thanks for reminding me about this being released today yesterday.

I'm stopping at the end of part 2 for the night, and I've just got to say, Steris is such a great character. She gets thrust into this utterly insane lifestyle, with all the trouble Wax keeps getting into, and proceeds to take it all in stride and turn it into an excuse for becoming Crazy Prepared - and quite effectively so. And the banter!:smallamused: Some of these conversations are quite strongly reminiscent of D&D gaming sessions, complete with the utterly gobsmacked reactions of bystander NPCs.:smallamused:

End of part 2... did you already get through their check-in to the hotel? Probably my favorite scene in the book, because it really does a lot to highlight just how crazy Wax's crew is.

Also, totally agree. Steris is a character I started off pretty cold towards in AoL, but grew to like after a few rereads... and now that we have two more books she's probably my favorite character in the series. There isn't another character that gets me to laugh half as consistently in any of Sanderson's books, and yet I never feel like I am laughing at her, just enjoying her. Really glad to see more of her throughout BoM.

[Pronounceable]

So I read that whole new novella, right after reading BoM too. Don't remember last time I read so hard. An unfortunate result is that BoM was instantly relegated to background because Kelsier is such an overbearing asshat. His little novella managed to push back Wax&Wayne inside my mind with sheer Kelsierity (and spoilers).

Secret History is concentrated, weapons grade holy **** and all Mistborn fans need to read it (after BoM). Apparently it's been stewing for a decade as Sanderson immediately started thinking about this stuff after original Mistborn came out but wasn't sure if Mistborn or Kelsier would take hold enough to justify writing More Adventures of Kelsier. Gonna admit this isn't Great Art(TM) like Emperor's Soul was but it's among the top3 of Sanderson, after ES and WoR.
...
^ ^^ That hotel scene was trying too hard. Waaay too hard. It was very funny but it was trying really hard to be so. Which made it stand out, showed the man behind the curtain so to speak, hamstringed the funnies. It was the only scene I explicitly disliked in the whole novel, funny or not.

[Douglas]

That hotel scene was trying too hard. Waaay too hard. It was very funny but it was trying really hard to be so. Which made it stand out, showed the man behind the curtain so to speak, hamstringed the funnies. It was the only scene I explicitly disliked in the whole novel, funny or not.
I thought it was perfect, a giant hilarious lampshade of just how ridiculous the story is in a lot of ways. The humor comes from the fact that every single thing in the scene would not be the least bit out of place if presented with a more serious tone and context. Putting all of it together in one scene was a bit over the top, yes, but in my opinion it would take the inclusion of something that would not fit in a serious context for it to be "trying too hard".

Also, it was a great setup for the callback at the end of part 2.
"Framed for murder! It's on page seventeen of the list I gave you!"

[Tom Tearcamel]

1st off Amazon dropping the ball on Secret History is slowly killing me me. (is being melodramatic) So much so that I downloaded the sample to my previously unused iBook app. The first chapter seems pretty sweet. I would abuse the crap outa cadmium alomancy. Bands of Mourning itself was pretty great. I'm now proud to have been a Steris fan since Alloy. She managed to steal the show from Wax, and even master-thief Wayne quite often.

[Seerow]

1st off Amazon dropping the ball on Secret History is slowly killing me me. (is being melodramatic) So much so that I downloaded the sample to my previously unused iBook app. The first chapter seems pretty sweet. I would abuse the crap outa cadmium alomancy. Bands of Mourning itself was pretty great. I'm now proud to have been a Steris fan since Alloy. She managed to steal the show from Wax, and even master-thief Wayne quite often.

Hey now, Wayne's no thief. Only thing he steals is accents, and that's the truth. Aint his fault that rich people decide some things a bloke needs are more valuable than they really are. He offers fair trades for everything he wants, from a utilitarian perspective.





Also, while Amazon is still the worst, apparently Dragonmount's version of the ebook is compatible with Kindle. I just got my copy earlier today, but haven't started reading yet. Probably going to put an hour or two in before bed now.

[Dragonus45]

Holy crap, i thought this was not out till next week. Must go buy now.

[tiornys]

Also, it was a great setup for the callback at the end of part 2.
That line was awesome. I ripped through the whole book plus Secret History yesterday after Amazon finally got their act together. Still processing, but man there are a lot of good zingers.

[Dragonus45]

Finally had time to sit down and read the book today, and now immediatly went and bought secret history because WHAT THE ************. Also the implications of soulstamping mixing with identity feruchemy are mind boggling.

[Landis963]

Finally had time to sit down and read the book today, and now immediatly went and bought secret history because WHAT THE ************. Also the implications of soulstamping mixing with identity feruchemy are mind boggling.

:smalleek: Holy rusts, I didn't think of that. I was more concerned with the implication of "Oh that's how Scadrial can do FTL." Unkeyed metalminds (especially unkeyed nicrominds, Harmony's Bands) and that primer cube thing will be huge in that regard.

[Kd7sov]

Anybody know what ettmetal would be, real-world-wise? Exploding in contact with water makes me think cesium, but that (when pure) has a melting point not far above room temperature, so I suspect it's not our answer.

[BlueHerring]

Anybody know what ettmetal would be, real-world-wise? Exploding in contact with water makes me think cesium, but that (when pure) has a melting point not far above room temperature, so I suspect it's not our answer.

Cesium's melting point is actually roughly 28-29 degrees Celsius. Rubidium has a slightly higher melting point (something like 38 degrees) as well.

Edit: Cesium is significantly rarer than rubidium. I'd hedge my bets on good ol' Rb.

[Dragonus45]

I figure its sodium or some such, either that or its harmonium.

Going to spoil this next bit for rampant speculation and some spoilers for stormlight archive.

So, I have some thoughts and I'm not certain if there has been any WoB on anything I'm about to mention but if there has please let me know. This idea is involved in a few thoughts about what Nicrosil Tokens do to a person spirit web. So a person ability to iron push in this example has that ability written into the spirit web, whatever that is. So what happens to a spirit web if someone gains the ability to push from a NToken do they get a node so to speak on that web? How does that even work? Second important question, can gold heal the soul. I know that WoB is that on Roshar a living Shardblade can do so but I'm not certain if anything has been said about gold. Assuming that gold can heal the soul the same as it can heal the body then you get to what I call cruelty free hemalurgy. Take a man, give him steel pushing. Spike the push out of him. Give him a gold token to heal that back up, or if gold proves to be as diffucult to share as people suspect then just do this with a bloodmaker to heal that soul wound, if there even is one. Perhaps that hemalurgy just pokes a hole in a guy and takes a power he only had for a moment in the first place. Either way its hemalrgy for free. You turn if from end negative to end positive in a single swoop, and on top of that I had an even more devious idea. What happens if you, a coinshot, get your coinshot power spiked into an iron spike. Then, you heal yourself up and swallow that spike to burn for power. Its keyed you to, its yours so there is no reason not to. What compounding affect do you get then?

[Landis963]

Anybody know what ettmetal would be, real-world-wise? Exploding in contact with water makes me think cesium, but that (when pure) has a melting point not far above room temperature, so I suspect it's not our answer.

I saw a bit of theorizing on that on another forum; basically anything in the alkali metal section of the periodic table would work, and the further up you go the greater the energy release per mole (although admittedly much slower than cesium). Cesium actually doesn't react as strongly as described (the bomb's supposed to be dynamite-level strength, and cesium has 20% the strength of dynamite per mole). Maybe they got around that with a larger payload, or maybe the bomb itself does something to make sure all the energy is released at once. In any case, the metal's name, "ettmetal" translates loosely to "One metal" or "first metal" in German. The first alkali metal? Lithium. Which, when reacted with water, releases 425% of the energy of dynamite.

[Douglas]

It just occurred to me: Wax realized in the book that they could use compounding to recharge the Bands, but there's an even greater potential there. Someone using the Bands, charged up with compounding, should be able to make another Bands. With the original Bands as a seed, it's theoretically possibly to mass produce them and make an entire army of Lord Ruler-level allomancers/feruchemists, limited in power only by their supplies of metal.

[thethird]

I'm currently listening to the audiobook, something I've enjoyed doing since well I got myself familiarized with them. It allows me to not read omg so fast (which I tend to oterwise do). Steris is being a treat, I've always loved her character, the calmness around her and I have always identified with that.

Current plan is finish the audio book, then jump into secret history (reading), and then read bands of mourning.

[Pronounceable]

I'm seeing a lot unmarked spoilers here. That's no good.


Cesium actually doesn't react as strongly as described (the bomb's supposed to be dynamite-level strength
That's only the knockoff Set managed to cobble. Actual airship bombs are supposed to be strong enough to wreck Elendel, plus we have no idea if they're ordinary chemical reaction bombs or have some magic shenanigans inside them. As ettmetal can power enough iron Feruchemy and steel Allomancy to make a few fans lift gigantic ships into air, there's no reason it can't power some kind of compounded steelpush bomb or something.

soulstamping mixing with identity feruchemy
That train will have no brakes.

[thethird]

Just duralumin plus anything aon based ANYWHERE.

[Seerow]

Just duralumin plus anything aon based ANYWHERE.

I really need to read Elantris again.

But I want to to wait until I get the anniversary edition.


...and it still hasn't come back into stock.

C'mon Sanderson, I'm waiting here wanting to shell out 100 bucks on a fancy leatherbound book. Get it in stock for me and take my money!

[Kd7sov]

I saw a bit of theorizing on that on another forum; basically anything in the alkali metal section of the periodic table would work, and the further up you go the greater the energy release per mole (although admittedly much slower than cesium). Cesium actually doesn't react as strongly as described (the bomb's supposed to be dynamite-level strength, and cesium has 20% the strength of dynamite per mole). Maybe they got around that with a larger payload, or maybe the bomb itself does something to make sure all the energy is released at once. In any case, the metal's name, "ettmetal" translates loosely to "One metal" or "first metal" in German. The first alkali metal? Lithium. Which, when reacted with water, releases 425% of the energy of dynamite.

So the cesium idea was based on the first page that came up when I searched "metals that react with water" (because "alkali" slipped my mind), and cesium was the first one that page described with the word "explode". Having watched some youtube videos since... rubidium and potassium are definitely also candidates, possibly sodium, but I'd have to exclude lithium unless large quantities thereof act very differently than small quantities.

(That said: I would also accept lithium if, at some point, we encounter/hear of an "ettmetal cracking station", because Star Trek.)


Just duralumin plus anything aon based ANYWHERE.

I wonder if we might not be closer than we think. The Jaggenmire sounds an awful lot like the Dor, and one of my first thoughts when Marasi was examining the primer was that the strange symbols on it were probably not just decorative. (What they'd do I don't know, but it's occurred to me that the Elendel Basin should work well for Aon-like symbols, and who knows what landshapes you get southward?)

[Landis963]

I wonder if we might not be closer than we think. The Jaggenmire sounds an awful lot like the Dor, and one of my first thoughts when Marasi was examining the primer was that the strange symbols on it were probably not just decorative. (What they'd do I don't know, but it's occurred to me that the Elendel Basin should work well for Aon-like symbols, and who knows what landshapes you get southward?)

I thought "Jaggenmire" was Malwish for "Shard." Especially given the legend of "Herr" and "Frue."

[Kd7sov]

I thought "Jaggenmire" was Malwish for "Shard." Especially given the legend of "Herr" and "Frue."


And perhaps Dor is the Duladen word for Shard, or as near as Jaggenmire is.

The Jaggenmire looks to me like not so much a thing Herr is and a thing Frue is, but a thing that is both Herr and Frue, and perhaps also neither and each. It's described as what makes things grow or die. Compare the Dor: "the unseen power-- it is in everything, but cannot be touched. It affects nothing, yet it controls everything." It motivates rivers, grants birds the ability to fly, and is the Investiture that, even severely restrained, animates Elantrians.

Now, recall one of Sazed's descriptions of Shards: a personality attached to a huge mess of power. A bunch of power such as Raoden feels pressing and straining every time he draws an Aon or gets struck by one of the pulses.

Not conclusive, I admit, but there's enough similarity that I think it's worth considering.

[Dragonus45]

Whatever it is thats going on with the people from Sel its important to remember that at some point Odium blasted the shards that lived there into tine pieces.